UK Politics

The UK has floods once more – this time in Cumbria. 60000 homes are without power, and the region had record rainfall. That follows floods in winter 2013-2014 in the South West of England. On 14th February 2014, The Independent and a few more newspapers had stories that the UK […]

“Eurozone crosses Rubicon as Portugal’s anti-euro Left banned from power” screamed Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in The Daily Telegraph on Friday last week. The Telegraph even followed up with a piece about why Portugal’s situation was a threat to everyone else. Everyone from Daniel Hannan to Owen Jones jumped on it, and […]

I was invited to speak at DG Cambridge on 14th October about UK – German relations in the context of David Cameron’s EU referendum. Antony Carpen was kind enough to film the speech, and put it up on Youtube: There are three parts to the speech: – How did UK-EU […]

A tweet by Sony Kapoor: Any economically sensible relation with the #EU post #Brexit will be at the cost of a much greater loss of the sovereignty sceptics cherish — (((Sony Kapoor))) (@SonyKapoor) October 16, 2015 This is absolutely right, and let me give a little more context. If Britain […]

A legend persists about the 1975 referendum that confirmed the UK’s continued membership of the then European Economic Community (EEC); Britain voted to stay in an economic union back then, it is often stated, but the European Union has since become a political union. Britain didn’t vote for that. I […]

From David Cameron’s official Twitter account this morning: The Labour Party is now a threat to our national security, our economic security and your family's security. — David Cameron (@David_Cameron) September 13, 2015 I think it’s crass and unbefitting of someone who holds the UK’s most major political office, but […]

Tony Blair promised to put Britain at the heart of Europe, and then failed to do it. Not only did he not take Britain into the Euro, but he also divided the EU over Iraq (preventing the development of a proper EU foreign policy). Meanwhile his delegates to Giscard d’Estaing’s […]

After the initial shock of the Tory victory in May, and the dawning realisation that the UK’s in-or-out of the EU referendum will indeed happen, a sort of calm consensus among pro-EU contacts of mine in the UK formed in the early summer. Of course Cameron wants the UK to […]

Nauseating posters such as this one: adorn airports worldwide. They are part of the “Britain is GREAT” campaign. The website even states “Welcome to GREAT Britain”. Well, not if you’re Ai Weiwei. A state visit for the Chinese PM is more important than a visa for the dissident artist. So […]

So Cameron is in Riga, trying to charm fellow EU leaders that British exceptionalism a reformed EU is possible. News about it here. But one phrase particularly struck me from Cameron’s words – we’re going to give the people a “proper choice” he says. The choice Cameron proposes is his […]

So the Labour Party has another leadership election. Unlike in 2010, when I was still a Labour Party member and heavily involved in the process*, this time I have no vote (having quit Labour to join the German Grüne as I now live in Berlin). However that doesn’t mean I […]

The construction vehicles pictured above are a JCB 3CX (on the left), manufactured in Rocester, UK, and two Volvo Construction Equipment machines (on the right), a L120F and L120E, both manufactured in Arvika, Sweden. My point of course – in light of comments yesterday by Chief Executive of JCB, Graeme […]

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